Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria, Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again., sentence 94
Ever since that day dogs never speak or do anything for their masters, although they can understand quite well.
Who acts: day dogs, DOGS · What happens: not speak, do, understand · To what, where: anything · Speech: someone speaks here
This is a sentence of «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Iv.--how Elili of Inkum Died, and Was Brought Back to Life Again.. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (day dogs, DOGS), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.
Mova's own parse. This tree may be wrong.
The tree
The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)
| # | word | lemma | UPOS | features | head | relation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ever | ever | ADV | PronType=Ind | 7 speak | advmod |
| 2 | since | since | SCONJ | _ | 7 speak | mark |
| 3 | that | that | DET | Number=Sing PronType=Dem | 4 day | det |
| 4 | day | day | NOUN | Number=Sing | 5 dogs | compound |
| 5 | dogs | dog | NOUN | Number=Plur | 7 speak | nsubj |
| 6 | never | never | ADV | PronType=Neg | 7 speak | advmod |
| 7 | speak | speak | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | root | root |
| 8 | or | or | CCONJ | _ | 9 do | cc |
| 9 | do | do | VERB | Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin | 7 speak | conj |
| 10 | anything | anything | PRON | Number=Sing PronType=Ind | 9 do | obj |
| 11 | for | for | ADP | _ | 13 masters | case |
| 12 | their | their | PRON | Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs | 13 masters | nmod:poss |
| 13 | masters | master | NOUN | Number=Plur | 10 anything | nmod |
| 14 | , | , | PUNCT | _ | 18 understand | punct |
| 15 | although | although | SCONJ | _ | 18 understand | mark |
| 16 | they | they | PRON | Case=Nom Number=Plur Person=3 PronType=Prs | 18 understand | nsubj |
| 17 | can | can | AUX | VerbForm=Fin | 18 understand | aux |
| 18 | understand | understand | VERB | VerbForm=Inf | 7 speak | conj |
| 19 | quite | quite | ADV | _ | 20 well | advmod |
| 20 | well | well | ADV | Degree=Pos | 18 understand | advmod |
| 21 | . | . | PUNCT | _ | 7 speak | punct |
Pragmatics
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not speak speech: other | present | day dogs | ever | vn talk-37.5 «NP V»: agent=Agent | ||||
| 2 | do | present | day dogs not said here | anything | for DOGS's masters | vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent anything=Eventuality | |||
| 3 | understand | can | DOGS = dog | well property | vn comprehend-87.2-1-1-1 «NP V»: agent=Experiencer |
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.
Text: «Ikom folk stories from Southern Nigeria» by Elphinstone Dayrell, Project Gutenberg book 70959 (public domain in the USA). Tree: Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), the chapter read in order.
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg70959/5/94/